TKI Wind op Zee Newsletter December 2018

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TKI Wind op Zee

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20 december 2018

Dear all,

We are approaching the end of the year and we are preparing for the 2019 innovation and subsidy program.

Earlier this month the outline of the DEI (Demonstration Projects Energy Innovation) innovation subsidy instrument was announced for consultation. Although this is preliminary information, we would like to point out possible opportunities for offshore wind for most elements in our R&D Program. Please read further down this email.

Also, we are working with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) on the other Topsector Energy subsidy tenders for 2019. We expect the Wind op Zee R&D tender will be formally published 1 February 2019 and will close early May, so you can start your preparations! This tender, targeted at lower and mid-range TRLs, will address all three main themes in the TKI Wind op Zee program: Cost Reduction and Optimisation, Integration in the Energy System and Offshore Wind and the Environment (see program document). Like the previous tender this year there will be specific constraints on projects related to Cost Reduction and environmental R&D. The details will follow shortly. There will be no specific tender for System Integration on the North Sea in 2019.

Do you want to know more about the upcoming tenders? Come to our Matchmaking Day on February 14th in Utrecht.

Once again, we give organisations the opportunity to present themselves at the Innovation market. Are you interested? Please contact Gabriëlle Smith.

The registration for the Matchmaking Day will start in January 2019. Find out more

The TKI Wind op Zee team wants to thank you for your cooperation in R&D in 2018 and looks forward to a very innovative new year.

Best wishes,

Bob Meijer

(please note the tender information above is preliminary and the official information to be published by RVO is leading)

Flexibility of the energy system e.g. hydrogen (budget 33 million euro)

Integration in the environment e.g. multi-use or ecology (budget 10 million euro)

Important is that project budgets related to areas 2 to 5 have to be fully used in the year 2019. For the first area (Energy Innovation), this is similar to the DEI of 2018, this period is max. 4 years.

Offshore wind innovation projects may benefit, apart from the general Energy Innovation area, from the areas Flexibility of the energy system and Integration in the environment.

This is all prelimanary information. More details about this subsidy instrument will become available shortly. The official regulations will be published by RVO on 1 February 2019.

Ridderflex winner Offshore Wind Innovation Challenge 2018

After three rounds, Dutch company Ridderflex is the winner of the Offshore Wind Innovation Challenge 2018. Ridderflex has made an innovative design to realize the Perfect Fender.

Their polyether urethane fender is both robust and durable, and a great solution to the challenge formulated by SeaZip for the Offshore Wind Innovation Challenge. With the first prize, Ridderflex wins an introduction to potential lead launching customers, prize money, an introduction at ORE Catapult and the option of running a pilot of their product at an offshore wind farm!

The fender of Ridderflex is an answer to the challenge of SeaZip, a maritime partner in offshore exploration and offers crew transport and support vessels for the offshore wind sector. When visiting an offshore wind farm for operations and maintenance, SeaZip’s vessels endure a lot of force and friction when connecting to a windmill, therefore they use fenders to protect their vessels from damage. The current fenders in the market suffer frequent wear and tear and often have to be replaced after 3 weeks. The cost for replacing a fender range between € 15,000 and € 30,000, not even taking into consideration the costs of downtime of the vessel and wind turbine.

During the challenge, Ridderflex made big steps in developing their idea from scratch to a well-designed fender. Hence SeaZip can start to test their fender within the coming months. A great collaboration between the companies, but also to decrease the costs for Operations & Maintenance.

Nick van der Steen en Arthur Brouwers: We are proud to call ourselves Offshore Wind Innovator 2018 and we are looking forward to the next phase of our Fender project with SeaZip!

Finalists Offshore Wind Challenge

The other nominees for the Offshore Wind Challenge were Melsystems in collaboration with Filtertechnick Ltd and Skeye in collaboration with Prodrone.

Melsystems and Filtertechnick Ltd

Mel Systems, in collaboration with Filtertechnik Ltd, were impressive finalists with a smart and quick solution for the challenge of ‘On the spot Oil Analysis’ which was set by Gemini. Together they developed their new product: Particle Pal Life, which speeds up the process of oil analysis live in a wind turbine nacelle. Currently, taking an oil sample and having it analysed at a laboratory takes too long, involving logistics, administration and is subject to errors due to samples getting lost or mixed up. Therefore, Gemini set the challenge of looking for a mobile device that would enable samples to be taken and analysed on the turbine itself and also to have the data available in the back office at the same time.

Particle Pal Life offers a revolutionary new tablet-based portable oil analysis kit which gives Engineers immediate insight into the state of their oil and allowing engineers to make informed choices on the spot. The Innovation Challenge has led these two organisations to accelerate their collaboration to come to their final solution.

Richard Price, Managing Director of Filtertechnik commented: “The Wind Innovators Challenge was a huge catalyst in Filtertechnik understanding and overcoming the unique obstacles in taking on the spot oil analysis readings in the Wind market. We moved quickly to adopt radical new Digital Imaging technology that eliminates air bubbles from ISO Counts and also provides particulate root cause analysis live and on the spot. We also developed a new pump design that can handle highly viscous oils without issues”.

Raoul Marino, CEO of Mel Systems said:” Based on our knowledge of customers’ needs operating in Wind service, we are convinced that the Particle Pal, will find the right market space. First contacts and orders with leaders and medium-size operators are in progress.”

Skeye and Prodrone

The third finalists in the Offshore Wind Challenge were Skeye in collaboration with Pro-Drone. They have developed a solution to another challenge of Gemini; to optimise the use of a transfer and service vessel during night time in a wind farm. They developed a fully autonomous and automated device for wind blade inspections at night.

Their drone will automatically and autonomously create photos of all edges of the three blades within 40 minutes for each wind turbine. The photos will be uploaded in the ‘Blade Insights’ software, which structures all photos for inspection based on a 3D model of a wind turbine. Through computer learning the software will identify 80% - 90% of all defects, enabling a robust and efficient analysis for the inspection.

The collaboration of Skeye and Pro-Drone has led to a pilot together with DOT Power on their 0,5 MW pilot turbine at the Princess Amalia Wind Farm.

Fistuca winner Offshore Wind Innovation Award 2018

Fistuca is the winner of both the jury and the public prize of the Offshore Wind Innovation Award 2018. . With an innovative maintenance-free connection technology - the Blue Wedge Connection - the company convinced the jury and the audience (what Audience) that the current issues with bolted and grouted connections can be tackled. The other finalists were TWD with a Hammock Seafastening design and Qlayers with an automatic printing system.

The BLUE Wedge Connection is a new connection technology for offshore wind substructures. It is easy and safe to install, requiring minimal offshore work. The design is very robust and highly resistant to fatigue. As there is no need for inspection, the operational expenditures are minimal compared to other connection methods. The highly scalable design also reduces capital expenditures, especially for next-generation offshore wind turbines.

Boltlife extends lifespan of wind turbines

Pioneering SME
A wind turbine has thousands of bolt connections to clamp all flanges together. If they are not properly tightened, the reliability of the entire wind turbine is at stake. With its flange closing method, Boltlife can quickly determine whether each individual bolt has been brought to the correct load. In addition, they contribute to ensuring that wind turbines achieve their promised lifespan of 25-30 years or more, without costly bolting campaigns.

Once again a subsidy-free procedure for a North Sea wind farm

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate opened a procedure to build and operate a wind farm in the North Sea without subsidy. The procedure is for Hollandse Kust (Zuid) 3 & 4. The wind farm will generate about 700 MW of renewable energy, enough to provide approximately one million households with sustainable electricity. Market parties can submit their application for the license from 1 March up to and including 14 March 2019 17:00 hours at RVO.nl.

Changed date: meeting with Minister Wiebes

17 January 2019

On 17 January 2019 Publieke Zaken organises a meeting with the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Eric Wiebes. Remco de Boer will open the program with a column, which is followed by a short lecture held by the minister, including the possibility to ask questions.

For your information

During the Wind Meets Gas symposium the latest updates on the developments on and around the North Sea were presented. You can find the presentations here: www.windmeetsgas.com

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